Lucaerna Duskstalker
"...with sword of hatred and spite do I thrust from behind the shield of light...for Her glory do I fight and for Her glory do I die so the Legion may be vanquished by Her might... Lucaerna Duskstalker is a Night Elven Demon Hunter who typically works out of Southern Eastern Kingdoms and northern Kalimdor. Formerly a priestess of Elune, Lucaerna underwent the rites of Demon Hunter initiation and stepped into darkness. Highly skilled in magical arts beyond many of her brethren, Lucaerna utilizes twisted reflections of the priestly invocations. As a former Night Elven priestess of Elune, Lucaerna came to believe that the light of Elune could not penetrate the blackness of the coming night of the Burning Legion. She forsook her vows to the light so that she may fight in the shadow in the name of her Goddess. Early Life Lucaerna was born roughly 40 years after The Sundering. A time when the Night Elves when Night Elf society was crystallizing into the reclusive times as the long vigil began. Lucaerna was indecisive for much of her early years, unsure of whether to join the sentinels as her family had, being part of the former warrior caste, or to explore the new order being created by Tyrande Whisperwind. Eventually Lucaerna and her twin sister, Amlae, decided together to join the Elunian order and take their vows to become priestesses. Service to Society As the years and millenia passed by, Lucaerna came to be a strong and intense believer in the Goddesses power, helping her people as she could. Throughout this time she gained some note as rather zealous and outspoken about the Night Elves being confined to small a domain in Northern Kalimdor. But at the same time was treated as somewhat of an outsider, having not taken part in the War of the Ancients and lacking perspective. As time went on she tempered her zeal with wisdom and became a talented healer and capable vessel of the Moon Goddesses power. She served with distinction in the War of the Satyr, serving under Tyrande Whisperwind and the Sentinel Order to drive back the demons. It was during this war that the very first seeds of doubt were sewn into Lucaerna's mind, that the legion was going to return. Spiritual Split It was during the rise of Man in which Lucaerna's path in life began to deviate. Around 3,000 before the opening of the Dark Portal, the humans had come into the power of magic, having learned from the High Elves. The humans practiced magic wildly and without discipline and once more began to attract the attention of the Burning Legion. As pockets began to return as human magic spread beyond Arathor and Dalaran, Lucaerna and Merresa began to grow worried. They had grown up on the stories of the Legion and the terror of demons. Since the War of the Satyr and without the means to stop the humans from practicing their magic and bringing about the Legion, Merresa and Lucaerna decided that they must seek out methods of preventing the legions return. They searched and searched for several years and it was Amlae who eventually found the solution in her searches. She encountered an Elf named Praesius, a very knowledgeable man in the field of demons. The two met with him several times, eventually traveling all the way to the region of Desolace and agreed to accept knowledge from him to bring back to greater Night Elven society and so they learned. Methods to hunt down demons. Ways of detecting them. Alchemical agents which would be effective. Curing demonic poison. In time the visits became more and more frequent. Neither of them really noticed the gradual change in their lives. The two of them became the Demon Hunter's students. Demon Hunter Training Lucaerna and Amlae began their training almost without notice. Both of them maintained an intense faith in the Goddess and the righteousness of their actions. They studied for decades; learning magic and martial powers. Training with glaive and with magic for years. They would often spar with each other or work to boost each others skills. Both of them together found their first demon for their first hunt. A mighty Terrorguard which had been terrorizing Ashenvale. They took his blood and returned it to their master, they inflicted their tattoos upon each other under their Shan'do's instruction. Many years later, the two of them were ready for the Ritual of Blinding and their final rituals. Both of them went together to locate their targets. They sought out and cornered powerful Shivaara as her goal, as close to sisters as they could be for demons, priestesses of the burning legion for the Priestess of Elune. Lucaerna underwent the blinding ritual with the true name of the Demon, Sha'zzaara. The two hunted the demons over the course of several weeks and eventually managed to corner her alone on the outskirts of Ferales, wounding her grievously and binding her to the mortal plane. She began the ritual of binding, but the Shivaara lashed out. Distracting her and nearly escaping. Lucaerna quickly redid the binding, but was forced to improvise. She consumed the flesh of the demon as she bound it, taking it into herself. The quick reaction worked, but left her forever changed. Influenced by the Shivaara within her and constantly vying for control of the physical body. She returned to her Shan'do, but her sister had failed. Found wanting, she was unable to slay her target. Her training ended. Lucaerna completed her training. She thanked her Shan'do and they went their separate ways to do their duty. The two would meet many times over the centuries to work together. The Long Vigil Now set upon her watch, Lucaerna began to root out pockets of the legion where they hid. Satyrs were her primary goal, the War of the Satyr burned into her addled mind. Brief periods of intense action and destruction followed by periods of lethargy and contemplation as the millennia passed by. As her inner demon took root within her, she found her favorite targets to be mortal cultists, for it appealed to her intense vanity. The split second of distraction to her as she appeared, the wander of an eye as she infiltrated under guise. Human cults were her prime targets, for she possessed an irrational hatred of mankind for their part, at least in her mind, of bringing the legion back into the world. Present Day When the time came, Lucaerna answered the summons of Illidan Stormrage when he called his Demon Hunters to his side once freed from his 10,000 years of Imprisonment. Though having spent the long centuries in exile Lucaerna came without a moments hesitation to aid her people and acted instantly in the name of the master of all hunters. Though her time in the presence of The Great Shan'do was brief, she gladly and zealously fought under his command against the demons of the Felwood. When Illidan and the bulk of the Demon Hunters departed for Outland, Lucaerna stayed behind on Azeroth as part of the rear guard composed of those elves who felt the strongest ties to the world. She has since found herself joining with other hunters who remained behind under the teachings of The Dark Embrace, coming together to prepare for the legions impending return. She seeks out new students to bring onto the path and to hopefully indoctrinate into the Dark Faith. And her faith did grow, over the years until the return of the legion her own following and powers grew, as did her instability. In the months leading up to the third legion invasion of Azeroth, Lucaerna traveled to the demon world of Mahz'arahk with her Thero'shans Kyphaz Duskwolf and Ysandiir to locate the sibling demon of she who was bound within her, she tracked down the counterpart demon and confronted it. It would prove to be her undoing, for as the demon within her was in danger of slipping its binding, the true name of the beast gave it that last push it needed. Engaging in a battle of wills and faith that lasted days, Lucaerna confronted her demon upon her mental landscape, wrestling with the essence of the thing. The priestess of elune vs. the priestess of the false god Sargeras. Where mortals would quail, she succeeded, and as her bindings were tied shut once more by her Shan'do and her students, Lucaerna consumed the mind of demon within, silencing it for all time and merging completely with it. She was changed forever, a demon in flesh. Possessing an immortal demon soul. The Legion War The new clarity of mind of the hunter enabled her to finally lead her brethren in matters beyond that of magic and faith, and brought truth to the claims of the legions return. Deep nether augeries told of the legions return, and the message of impending doom was proselytized by Lucaerna and her cult. Lucaerna was highly active throughout the legion war; partaking in the sweeping conflicts and wars of faith across Val'shurah, spreading terror and agony across the Nightborn population, and laying claim to fel tainted Elunian Temples that lay across the isle, gaining great power for the Shadow Cult and attracting numerous followers.The atrocities of magic, soul, and flesh that Lucaerna performed in this war were sometimes overlooked for the greater good, and other times carved into the memories of others, never to be forgiven. Lucaerna joined with the Illidari proper when the gate to Argus opened. As she tore across the blighted world, she lay claim to powerful magics, slew countless demons, enslaved many others, and performed a hundred acts of cruelty and kindness as the Dark Embrace fought against corrupted titanic watchers under order of the Dark Titan Aggrammar. Only upon Macaree did Lucaerna take pause, as she came to discover the true depth of the dangers the void posed. Working with the renegade Draenei Raunii, she managed to gain access to the sealed Seat of the Triumvirate, and recover a small fragment of the darkened Naaru within, it's form shattered and power drained by mighty heros. Lucaerna was present at the mighty Siege of Antorus with the Illidari, storming the battlements. While the Army of the Light burned through to the core with the bulk of the Illidari, the Dark Embrace made secondary plays upward; cutting off relay transmission beacons, closing the mighty world gates which tethered Argus to other corrupted realms, and annihilating the garrisons and staging grounds which would sweep in to crush the Army of the Light. As the siege ended, Lucaerna was one of the last out of the collapsing gate back to Azeroth, taking a frenzied moment to gather as many artifacts and objects of power as she could before returning home with the covenant. In the weeks following the defeat of the burning legion, her time was filled with meditation and thought. As the forces of Azeroth fell back from the fel blasted lands of the world, she and her followers returned to the Temple of Elune; the Tomb of Sargeras, to dwell within the Cathedral of Eternal Night. Some days later, the Covenant of the Dark Embrace would join together one last time, declare their purpose complete, and the covenant was ended. The dark embrace scattered to the winds; some departed to continue the hunt on other worlds, some tried to go back to previous lives and ventures, others remained to defend Azeroth and thus went into seclusion once more. Post Legion War Lucaerna and her cult were secluded in the cathedral of eternal night for some time. It was only the Horde which drew them forth again. The Burning of Teldrassil and the destruction of the Grand Temple of Elune snapped something in Lucaerna, and she went into a berserker enrage like she never had before. She tore across the invaders of Darkshore, she committed such atrocities against the despoilers of the temple such that her name was whispered among the mortal soldiers whenever they found their comrades nailed to fel twisted trees and covered in the carved desecrated sigils of dark faith. Personality Lucaerna is complicated. The improvisation during the binding ritual has affected her profoundly, resulting in a partial merge of the demon and Lucaerna's personalities. The resulting personalities incorporates aspects of her former priestly mannerisms and wisdom, while being prone to the emotional Shivaan extremes and overtly sexual or zealous outbursts. The merging of Shivarra and elf left a somewhat contradictory woman in its wake; cool and even yet often rash and impulsive, disciplined and faithful yet sensual and suggestive. She enjoys disarming others with kindness and some with sexual advances, but all are facades that cover the sharp mind of the priest below. She is patient, studious, and inclined to magic. Wisdom comes easily to her as does intolerance for those she deems blasphemers. Lucaerna is highly zealous and believes herself to be Priestess of Elune still. She is fervently reverent and hates any action which involves action against Her church. It is her faith that allows her to hang on to her sanity. She is burned by holy items, even if her own vanity illusions and immunity to pain hide the damage from herself, perpetuating her delusion. Category:Characters Category:Night Elf Category:Demon Hunters Category:The Dark Embrace